Warren Peebles doesn’t exist. He’s a composite — a teaching example built from the kinds of problems that walk through real estate attorneys’ doors in Broward County every month. But the legal issues in his story are completely real, and they cost Florida homebuyers tens of thousands of dollars every year.
Say Warren is buying a single-family home in Plantation. The listing looks clean. The agent seems helpful. The inspection comes back with a few minor notes. Warren closes in 30 days, gets the keys, and three weeks later discovers that the master bathroom was completely rebuilt without permits after a pipe burst two years ago. The seller knew. The listing agent knew. Warren’s buyer agent never mentioned it. Now the city is threatening to red-tag the house until the work is either permitted retroactively or torn out and redone to code.
This is the kind of scenario that Florida’s real estate licensing laws are supposed to prevent. They don’t always work.
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What Florida Law Requires Real Estate Agents to Disclose
Florida Statutes Chapter 475 governs real estate licensees — brokers and sales associates. Section 475.278 lays out the duties of transaction brokers, which is how most agents in Florida operate. Transaction brokers don’t represent either party exclusively. They facilitate the deal. But they still have specific legal duties, and one of them is to disclose all known facts that materially affect the value of residential real property.
“Known facts” means exactly what it sounds like. If the listing agent was told by the seller that the bathroom remodel was unpermitted, or if the agent saw permit records showing no final inspection, that’s a known fact. If the buyer’s agent saw the same records and didn’t mention it to Warren, that agent also failed in their duty.
The statute doesn’t require agents to inspect or investigate. But if they know something material and don’t tell you, they’ve violated their duty under Florida law. Material means it would influence a reasonable buyer’s decision to buy or the price they’d pay. Unpermitted structural work is about as material as it gets.
Most Buyers Don’t Realize Transaction Brokers Aren’t on Their Side
Here’s the counterintuitive part. Most buyers in Florida think their agent works for them. Legally, in a transaction brokerage relationship, the agent doesn’t. Transaction brokers are neutral. They owe limited duties to both sides. They can’t disclose that the seller will take less than asking, or that the buyer will pay more. They can’t provide advice that benefits one party over the other in a way that harms the deal.
What they absolutely must do is disclose known material defects. That’s not optional, and it’s not negotiable. But enforcement is spotty, and most buyers don’t know their rights until after the damage is done.
If Warren had hired a single agent — a buyer’s agent with full fiduciary duties under Section 475.278(2) — that agent would have owed him undivided loyalty, full disclosure, obedience, confidentiality, and reasonable care. Single agency is rare in Florida residential deals now, but it exists. The difference matters.
What Happens When an Agent Violates Their Disclosure Duty
Warren has two potential paths. He can file a complaint with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which oversees real estate licensees through myfloridalicense.com. DBPR can investigate, and if it finds a violation, it can impose discipline ranging from a reprimand and fine to suspension or revocation of the agent’s license.
DBPR discipline doesn’t put money in Warren’s pocket. It’s a regulatory remedy, not a financial one. But it creates a public record, and it can support a civil lawsuit.
The second path is a lawsuit for negligence, misrepresentation, or breach of statutory duty. Florida courts have held that violations of Chapter 475 can support a negligence claim. If Warren can prove that the agent knew about the unpermitted work, failed to disclose it, and that failure caused him financial harm, he has a case.
The damages are real. Bringing unpermitted work into compliance in Broward County can cost $15,000 to $40,000 depending on the scope. If the city requires tearing out finished work, opening walls, and re-permitting from scratch, the number climbs. If Warren can’t get a permit at all because the work violates setbacks or code, he’s looking at either living with a code violation that kills resale value or funding a complete demo and rebuild.
The Seller’s Disclosure Obligation and the “As-Is” Trap
Florida law also requires sellers to disclose known material defects under the Johnson v. Davis line of cases. That’s a Florida Supreme Court decision that created an affirmative duty for sellers to disclose facts materially affecting the property’s value that aren’t readily observable and aren’t known to the buyer.
Unpermitted work behind finished walls is exactly the kind of latent defect Johnson v. Davis was designed to address. If the seller signed a standard Florida Realtors contract with an “as-is” clause and thought that relieved them of disclosure duties, they’re wrong. “As-is” doesn’t waive the duty to disclose known defects. It just means the buyer accepts the property in its current condition — assuming the seller tells the truth about what that condition actually is.
Warren’s lawsuit likely names both the seller and the agents: the seller for failing to disclose, and the agents for failing to pass along information they had or should have discovered in the course of the transaction.
How Broward County Handles Unpermitted Work
Broward County, like most Florida jurisdictions, maintains detailed permitting records online. If Warren’s agent had pulled the permit history for the property — which takes about five minutes on the county’s property records site — the missing permits would have shown up immediately.
When a homeowner discovers unpermitted work after closing, the first call is usually to Broward County Code Enforcement. The county can issue a notice of violation and set a compliance deadline. If the work can be permitted retroactively, the homeowner hires a licensed contractor, pulls the permits, and arranges inspections. The county charges permit fees, and the contractor charges for any corrective work needed to meet current code.
If the work can’t be permitted — because it violates setbacks, lot coverage, or zoning — the county can require removal. In extreme cases, the county can place a lien on the property for unpaid fines or costs of abatement. That lien stays with the property and has to be cleared before Warren can sell or refinance.
This is why buyers need attorneys at closing. Title companies don’t check permit histories unless someone specifically orders a municipal lien search with permit verification. Most buyers don’t know to ask for that. They rely on their agent, and if the agent drops the ball, the buyer eats the cost.
The Statute of Limitations Problem
Florida’s statute of limitations for negligence claims used to be four years. In 2023, the legislature cut it to two years for most negligence actions. That includes claims against real estate agents for failure to disclose.
If Warren closed on his house in 2022 and discovered the unpermitted work in 2024, he’s still within the window under the old rule if he files before the four-year mark. But if he closed in 2023 or later, he has two years from the date of closing — or from the date he discovered the defect, depending on how the discovery rule applies.
The discovery rule can extend the limitations period if the defect was hidden and couldn’t have been found through reasonable diligence. Unpermitted work behind drywall is a textbook case for delayed discovery. But the rule is fact-specific, and defense attorneys will argue that Warren should have checked the permit records before closing. That argument doesn’t always win, but it gets raised in every case.
The bottom line is that Warren can’t sit on this. Once he knows there’s a problem, the clock is running.
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What This Means for Every Buyer in South Florida
The Warren Peebles scenario plays out in slightly different forms across Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties dozens of times a year. Unpermitted additions. Undisclosed flood damage. Concealed foundation cracks. Liens that don’t show up on the preliminary title report because they were filed the day before closing.
The common thread is that buyers who close without an attorney and rely entirely on their agent’s guidance are flying blind. Real estate agents are licensed to facilitate transactions. They are not licensed to practice law, and they are not required to protect your interests the way an attorney is.
Florida doesn’t require buyers to have a lawyer at closing. That’s a feature for the real estate industry, not for buyers. Agents and title companies will tell you that you don’t need one because it keeps the process fast and cheap. It also keeps buyers from asking hard questions about permit histories, survey issues, HOA special assessments, and title defects until after the deal is done.
If you’re buying property in South Florida, pay a lawyer to review the contract and attend the closing. The cost is a fraction of what you’ll spend fixing problems that could have been caught with basic due diligence. Check the permit history yourself on the county’s website. Ask the seller for copies of permits and final inspections for any work done in the last ten years. If they can’t produce them, that’s your answer.
And if you’re already in Warren’s position — you closed, you discovered the problem, and the agent never told you — document everything and talk to an attorney before the statute of limitations runs. DBPR complaints are public record and free to file. Civil lawsuits cost money up front, but if the damages are substantial and the liability is clear, the case may be worth pursuing. You don’t get your money back by hoping the problem goes away.
